Too Many Selfies? You May Be Suffering From Selfitis

With the advancement of technology comes both the advantages and the harm. Smartphones appear to have interfered our lives in a way that has driven us to overlook our real selves. The story does not end here, what takes is that the smartphones with the the high definition camera and best features and have led to a rise in the number of selfies that we take. We enjoy selfies to upload them to social networking media and keep others updated on ‘how happening our life is’.
A selfie is self-picture normally taken by a digital camera or a selfie camera of a smartphone with a selfie stick or something else. It is high time for us to understand that circumstances are different and people don’t always like somebody’s success, rather, they feel jealous. This shows how the people are moving from independence to a constant state of seeking for social attention. This has led a complex state of affairs and subsequently addiction which can be named as the selfie disorder.
The American Psychiatric Association has officially affirmed that ‘taking selfies’ is a psychological disorder, which will formally be known as ‘Selfitis’. It is characterized as.
“An obsessive compulsive desire to take photographs of oneself and post them on social networking media as a way to compensate for the lack of confidence and to fill a gap in intimacy.”

The American Psychiatric Association has characterized the disorder at three levels.

1. Borderline Selfitis

Clicking pictures of oneself at least three times a day but not posting them on social media.

2. Acute Selfitis

Clicking pictures of oneself at least three times a day and posting each one of them on social media.

3. Chronic Selfitis

An uncontrollable urge to take photographs of oneself round the clock and posting them on social media for more than six times each day.

The American Psychiatric Association has expressed that there is no medication. However, a lot of temporary alternatives are available. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a talking treatment that helps us solve our issues by changing the way we think and behave, can be used as a measure if an individual is at the initial stage of selfitis.

Psychiatrists say that depression, obsession, loneliness and a lack of confidence can be the contributory causes of the obsessive disorder. The specialists are not against selfie culture but rather the insights make everyone to stress over the increasing craze for a perfect shot and the extents to which they are ready to go for it. Because of an early discovery of the selfitis discovery, there is, fortunately, a cure for it.

The analysts, after studying many patients who were suffering selfitis, declared that the newly discovered psychological disorder can be cured by a simple method for ‘groupfie'(a gather photograph taken like a selfie). As per them, by taking groupfies, people suffering selfie disorder can recover quickly from inflammation of their personal ego which is the hidden cause of the disorder.

The next time you find yourself posting too many selfies on social media, at a personal level you should not ignore this habit and have tried working on it. You should engage in real life activities and visit places without the camera. Altogether, if you feel, the habit of taking selfies is disturbing your everyday functioning, don’t hesitate in visiting a psychological health expert to prevent further harm.
To live the moment is superior to indicate it off!

Dr. Nikhila Chilupuri is Hyderabad based Medical Reviewer, Graduated in Pharma-D. She Currently Works as a Content Writer for Xpedient Digital Media. One of the popular author and researcher in the Healthcare area. Her Experience includes Writing articles on different sectors of Healthcare.